Category Archives: digital media

March 27, 2013 · 9:33 am

Are You A Premium Brand?

I read something that the folks at OpenX released the other day in conjunction with Digiday.  It’s the results of a study on Programmatic Buying and how it affects premium publishers. Since 71% of publishers and buyers trade ads programmatically it’s a big deal. You can read the paper here.

Luxury Penthouse rental in downtown Telluride ...

(Photo credit: HeartOfTelluride.com)

Having been a publisher of premium content I can tell you that I hated selling anything programmatically.  I wanted my sales folks involved directly with the buyer.  Not just so that we could get the premium CPM we felt we deserved but because we needed to earn that higher rate by doing a better job of meeting the needs of the client and delivering perfect service.  The study sums it up nicely:

Publishers, fearing the commoditization of the inventory surrounding their expensively produced content and painstakingly nurtured audiences, have every right to guard their investment. They want to make sure that any system that removes “friction” doesn’t also remove the distinction of their brand and the quality of their adjacencies, as measured by audience engagement. And, understandably, they want to preserve the professional relationships that forge the bedrock of their sustainable revenue growth.

Exactly.  But as the Digiday article states, premium is all in the eye of the beholder.  Which raised the issue I’ve been considering:  how do you define a premium brand?  Is it scarcity?  To a certain extent it is although there are plenty of Lexus cars around and that’s a premium brand.  Cost?  Maybe relative to other products in its class but coffee can be premium and it’s still relatively inexpensive.  One factor involved is positioning.  If you usually fly first class, being in business class seems cramped.  To a coach passenger, however, business class is premium.  Another is authenticity of some sort.  I was a publisher of hockey content – there are lots of people who do that.  I was the only official league outlet, however – that meant scarcity, authenticity, and in our minds a greater worth.

I could go on here for another 1,000 words but the notion of “premium” is one that’s going to become even more front and center as content becomes more commoditized.  I mean that not only in media buyers‘ minds but also in consumers’ minds.  It’s hard to ask consumers to pay a premium, either in money or in attention,  for an app or content or anything else if we can’t establish that premium status in their minds.

What do you think?

Enhanced by Zemanta

Leave a comment

Filed under digital media, Thinking Aloud

Tagged as , , , , ,

March 18, 2013 · 10:02 am

Social Is As Social Does

Let’s start the week with a little food for thought.  I came across a great report from the Altimeter Group concerning how businesses evolve around social.  The report makes a distinction between companies implementing a social media strategy and those that are building a social business.  It’s really an eye-opener, especially the finding that just 34% say there are clear metrics used throughout the organization that associate social activities with business outcomes.  Then again, given how too many businesses are always chasing the next shiny object without considering how or if it works for their enterprise, maybe it isn’t.

Here is how they made the distinction between social strategy ad social business:

A social media strategy lays out the channels, platforms, and tactics to support publishing, listening, and engagement. A social business strategy is the integration of social technologies and processes into business values, processes, and practices to build relationships and spark conversations inside and outside the organization, creating value and optimizing impact for customers and the business alike. The most important criteria for a successful social business strategy are twofold: clear alignment with the strategic business goals of an organization AND organizational alignment and support that enables execution of that strategy. However, in a survey conducted by Altimeter of social strategists and executives, only 34% felt that their social strategy was connected to business outcomes.

Yes, I said that last point a second time – I think it’s that important!  It gets to the first of the success factors of a successful social business strategy:

The biggest cause of social strategy failure was the lack of alignment around business objectives. Businesses that uncover the gap between business objectives, social media strategies, and internal challenges and opportunities will open dialogue that both closes the gaps and creates alignment in the process.

The report goes on to list six others:  Having a Long-term vision for becoming a social business, key executive support, having a roadmap in place for all your initiatives along with a timeline, process discipline and ongoing education, staffing properly, and choosing technology only after strategy is set.  Each one of those points would make a fine topic for a longer post but it’s a pretty good checklist from which to work.

I encourage you to read the report a couple of times and let me know what you think.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Leave a comment

Filed under digital media

Tagged as , , , , , ,

March 14, 2013 · 9:28 am

No More Megaphones

We’re discussed customer-centric marketing a lot here on the screed over the years. This morning there’s a piece of research out that reinforces many of the points we’ve brought up in those discussions. The good folks at MyBuys have released a study which is…

primary research across more than 1,100 consumers that examined how personalized marketing across channels impacts shopper attitudes and buying behavior. Survey results reveal that customer-centric marketing—the ability for retailers to engage consumers in one-to-one conversations across the customer life cycle and all touch points—increases buyer readiness, engagement and sales activity, with a record 40% of respondents now stating that they buy more from retailers who comprehensively personalize the shopping experience across channels.

What I like about this is the recognition that purchasing is a process.  People have to be ready before they’re going to ring the cash register and part of the marketing process (a big part as it turns out) is fostering that readiness.  In fact, one thing the study show is that it can detrimental (at the very least to your conversion rates) if you get people to your website in an attempt to buy before they’re ready. When people leave websites without purchasing it is most often because they were “still in the research process” (44%).  So much for the “hard sell.”  It speaks to the notion of an ongoing conversation as well as to the abandonment of a “one size fits all” marketing plan.  More complicated?  For sure.  Better payoff?  You tell me:

When customer-centric marketing is implemented across channels, retailers typically realize a full 100% increase in purchase frequency, a 50% increase in average order value and a 25% increase in conversion of cart abandoners to buyers. These and other improvements stemming from customer-centric marketing equate to delivering a 25% increase in total online sales and a 300% improvement in customer lifetime value.

So how does one go about this?  Well,  “readiness” requires finding the right product (67%) at the right price (55%). In addition, personalized promotional emails (57%) and personalized online advertising (35%) were shown to be the top vehicles to prompt consumers to purchase.  Not surprisingly, Amazon was the site to which people turned after quitting other sites while shopping.  Amazon is textbook customer-centric marketing.  My experience on the site and yours will be totally different, as will the marketing materials we receive.  Any wonder they’re the biggest?

Throw away your marketing megaphones – they might be doing more harm than good.  I suspect this behavior is going on offline as well but that’s another post.  Does that make sense?  Does the research?

Enhanced by Zemanta

Leave a comment

Filed under digital media, Helpful Hints

Tagged as , , , ,